Tunnels 06 - Terminal

stopped burning. Taken all together, it would more than likely have prompted Dr Burrows to spout forth about the devil meme in the human subconscious.
    But Dr Burrows wasn’t there.
    And his son was hardly in a condition to think rationally.
    ‘Is it Halloween?’ Will asked, chuckling outrageously as the morphine did its stuff.
    ‘No, it’s not Halloween,’ Elliott answered patiently. ‘And you have to listen to me. I want you to remember what I’m about to tell you. Concentrate, Will, because I don’t have much time.’
    Parry finished speaking to Bob, then turned to Eddie. ‘They’ve put a hold on the strike for the moment. All the images from the drones are indicating that the Armagi swarm is over.’ Parry briefed everyone over the radio, and there were cheers and shouts from the rooftops all around the place. But as Parry came off the radio, he was staring at Eddie. ‘What’s wrong?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ Eddie replied. He had his hand raised in front of him, his fingers splayed.
    As Parry watched, it was as if Eddie was blurred, vibrating, like a piece of film when it’s out of the sprocket but still running through a projector. And on the roof around Parry the same thing was happening to Eddie’s men.
    And to Rebecca Two.
    And to Hermione.
    And to Elliott.
    But Elliott had been prepared for it.
    Glancing up, she saw Stephanie approaching from the pedestrian subway, Martha’s knife still in her hand.
    ‘I think someone’s coming to see you,’ she said to Will, but not vindictively.
    ‘No, stay. Please,’ Will said weakly, trying to hold on to Elliott.
    ‘I can’t. Anyway, you wouldn’t want me like this,’ Elliott said, her insect limbs twitching behind her.
    ‘I don’t care. I …’ Will trailed off, barely conscious as his hands slipped from Elliott.
    ‘Goodbye, Will,’ she said softly to him, leaning over him to kiss him on the forehead. Then she turned from the Bentley and took a few steps across the pavement. She was peering up at the top of the building where her father and Parry were.
    ‘Dad!’ she shouted at the top of her voice.
    ‘Here,’ Danforth said, offering her his headset.
    She took it from him and quickly put it on.
    ‘Dad, can you hear me?’ she asked.
    ‘Elliott,’ he acknowledged, waving from the edge of the roof.
    ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘It was all or nothing,’ she said, staring up at him. ‘If I hadn’t activated the recall, it would have all been over anyway, not just for us, but for the rest of the planet too.’ She shook her head, her expression sad. ‘There wasn’t anything else I could do.’
    ‘Well, you did it, Elliott. You stopped it,’ Eddie said, brimming with pride for his daughter. There was a pause before he asked, ‘ Recall? ’
    Elliott never replied.
    She, her father, and every Styx on the surface of the Earth began to blur out in a haze of red.
    They were simply vanishing into thin air.
    ‘Rebecca!’ Captain Franz shouted desperately from the back of the Bentley. Sensing that something was happening to her, the Styx twin had stepped from the car, then promptly begun to disappear. The New Germanian threw himself at where Rebecca Two had been, trying to clutch at her as thered blur faded away. But for all the good it did him, he might as well have been trying to catch smoke. As there was nothing to stop him, he fell on his face, sliding in the oily mess left by the Armagi, and then he just lay there, sobbing uncontrollably.
    And other than his sobs, there was nothing but a stunned silence all around the cathedral.

 
     
     
    Chapter Twenty

    A s Will came to, he found he was lying in bed. A real bed, with a mattress and a pillow, and the feel of starched sheets against his skin. And there was pain, lots of it, mostly in his stomach and chest.
    He let out a groan, not because of how he felt, but because he needed to know that he was really awake. Then he groaned again, louder this time, and managed to open his eyes. He had a glimpse of sunlight through a window, and at the same time became aware of someone sitting beside him in a chair. Whoever it was, they were holding his hand. They were speaking to him, but he couldn’t hear what they were saying.
    ‘Elliott?’ he asked, trying to see.
    And then he thought that he could make out the shadowy outline of a second person behind the first. ‘Chester … is that you, Chester?’
    ‘It’s just me, Steph,’ came the reply, and after a moment, ‘and …. no,